(Newser)
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California is embroiled in a water crisis that's right out of Chinatown. In the midst of a devastating drought, state officials cut off water to thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland—in part to protect smelt fish from swimming into pumps and going extinct. Not surprisingly, farmers and conservatives have been stewing since water supplied by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was reduced in 2007. "This is a classic tale of activist government run amok—and, too, of the peculiarly suicidal instincts that rich and educated societies exhibit when they reach maturity," writes Charles Cooke in a biting National Review piece that calls environmentalism a "religion."

Governor Jerry Brown took action last month by declaring a drought emergency, giving himself the option of sending water to farmers and endangering the smelt, KCET reports. But it's not all about fish: The delta also needs to pump fresh water into the Pacific (and not to farmers) to keep seawater from intruding and ruining the delta's water supply, says the LA Times editorial board. Seeking a workaround, Brown wants to spend $15 billion on two 30-mile water tunnels that would run under the delta and supply farmland, reports Bloomberg. Left-wing critics (see Indybay) are slamming him for that plan as well—which leaves things where, exactly? "We're looking at just a huge amount of land going unplanted," a water-district rep tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "And I don't think we've seen the full effect of it yet."

Maybe with all the other disasters in California, politicaland natural, the Sacramento Levee system wil collapse as they fail to rebuild it.

Riffran

Feb 4, 2014 6:12 PM CST

sardines...hmmmm

The_Word

Feb 4, 2014 12:13 PM CST

California is a very strange State. You have a Desalination plant built by Santa Barbara from 1986-1991, (22 years ago), that has never been used for drinking water at all. http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/system/sources/desalination.asp It would cost millions of dollars just to fix it us to be usable. Governor Brown is a Liberal in a State whose Legislature Branch, (elected by Lefties), is so far Left that Governor (Moonbeam) Brown, comes out looking like a Conservative in comparison. Governor Pat Brown, (his dad), in the early '60's started the California Aqueduct System that goes from Lake Oroville to Southern California. One can see the opening with a picture of Governor Brown and President Kennedy at Visitor Centers. Southern California is a very large population that needs the water, and the farmers also need the water along the way. While I am a Conservative, I know that Governor Brown loves California and I know that he will do the right thing for the State of California. This is an old story. The Leftists have been doing this to the farmers for years over this smelt. Just take a few of them to Marineworld, and open it up for the farmlands already. Dumb. Any aquarium owner knows that you can breed these fish out of the wild and supply them back in better times. To understand the problem one also needs to know that there are 38 Million people in California and 23 Million live in Southern California. Southern California historically has had much more of a population than Northern California and has paid for irrigation projects in the past.